It's lunch hour and Mama Lou's at Ayala North Exchange in Makati City is not only full, people are leaving their numbers at the reception area for when a table becomes available. All of what you may expect from an Italian restaurant are here: Mediterranean yellow walls (laced with Christmas garlands because of the season), mounted plates and the iconic Asti Cinzano poster of a woman laying on some grapes, with a swirl of the bubbly around her.

When Mama Lou owners David Sison and Crystal Tremblay-Sison walk in, however, far from the traditional — he in black jeans and polo shirt, and she in a pink ensemble — they look younger than their mid-30s and as fit and trim than restaurateurs with a 22-strong chain of outlets have any right to be.

"We exercise and diet on other days. Kelangan e (We need to)," they say.

"Ang cheat day lang namin Mama Lou's (Mama Lou's is our only cheat day)," laughs David, which sounds like a good tagline, if you think about it.

They probably don't look too far off from when they were still dating, more than a decade ago, with Crystal already managing the modest restaurant her parents — the Mama Lou herself and her dad, Richard Tremblay — had built in BF Homes, Parañaque, in 2010.

Mixing business with pleasure proved to be the glue that kept not only the venture going, but the relationship strong. "Mama Lou's was my thesis," said David, who was taking up his master's at the time. "We were working together creating systems, standardizing recipes. We were building our supplier network, building the relationship, creating simple training programs for the team."

Crystal, for her part, tells of a generational clash in management styles. "Funny story," she relates, about her dad expecting her to work weekends, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, "because that's the busiest in the restaurant. Bit because she wanted to go out with her boyfriend, she reasoned that "we set up the system during weekdays, and we're training the people. We're testing it out Monday to Friday, (and by) Saturday, Sunday, we can see if it's working or not, so pwede wala ako dyan (so it should work even if I'm not there)."

Did he fall for it? "Nung una di masyado (At first, not really)," Crystal admits."'Hindi, kelangan andun ka' (No, you have to be there). Yung mindset namin ni David [David and I have this mindset that) — we don't need to be working IN the business, we have to be working ON the business."

They might have not known it at the time, but it was precisely the formula to run not just one restaurant, but a whole chain.

The Sisons emphasize the need to have a system where employees are able to move independently and make on-the-spot decisions even when the owner is not there physically. It's a balance of trusting the team they trained will take care of things, and when to be more hands-on.

When Mama Lou died in 2012, it seemed natural that the business of succession and subsequent expansion fell into the hands of the young couple. "We were blessed.  From a hole-in-the-wall, mom-and-pop restaurant to make it into a business," David muses.

The challenge is always how to scale both the food and the business so that the soul of what made people flock to the restaurant in the first place is not lost. "Yung sarap madali, yung consistency ang hindi (Creating delicious food is easy, creating delicious food consistently is not)," says David. "That's the challenge. Dun kami naka-focus (That's what we focus on)."

More than food, connections

In food businesses more than other industries, it is believed that if owners paid attention only to the bottomline, it would show in the food. "My dad just always reminds us, let's never serve anything on the menu, that we, ourselves would never eat," shares Crystal. "To bring together families, and to create meaningful connections…That is what we are providing aside from the food — the hospitality that they get, at the same time the price points," adds David. "We're not cheap, but we're not expensive, (we offer) value for money."

David is an admirer of iconic restaurateur Danny Meyer, the man behind Union Square Cafe and Shake Shack, among other iconic restaurants, and shares his philosophy: "Business, like life, is about how you make people feel, especially (for the) Pinoy. You have to have a high degree of empathy.  We're not Westernized (as to be) very professional, nothing personal. You have to have self-awareness when dealing with employees and customers."

 Mama Lou was a gifted cook with an exquisite palate, and while Crystal admits she may not have inherited the cooking skill, she does have a taste for excellent food. "Thankfully David is here," she says. "David is really into the kitchen operations, making sure food is consistent. It just so happens he is also (talented in the kitchen). Gifted din siya, like my mom, whether it was Filipino, Italian, without any biases."

Worth its salt

It is no surprise then to see that more than just caring about where they source their ingredients, it's a mission. 

Listening to David, it becomes apparent he is passionate about this. "We have a focus on fresh ingredients. It doesn't necessarily have to be imported from Italy. We work with local suppliers. We work with the local Department of Agriculture for our tomatoes."

For the chili-honey, he recalls, "If we're going to get honey, we have to get it from Bohol, so we worked with Bohol Bee Farm. They have it air-freighted." Honey is one of the most adulterated substances in food, so working directly with suppliers, local at that, is perhaps the only way to make sure the honey is pure. "It's legit honey," echoes Crystal.

The pepperoni on their pizza is imported because David wants the signature style that curls the edges and crisps into cups.

For the Spaghetti Seafood Olio, one of the restaurant's signature pasta dishes and a specialty of Mama Lou herself, David took pains to source each ingredient that went into it. It's a simple dish, but the simplest ones are often hard to do well because they rely heavily on the quality of ingredients. 

All the seafood used to be sourced locally, but as the supply of shellfish can be sensitive to red tide, the mussels now come from Chile and clams and squid from Vietnam, but David adamantly refuses to import shrimp because local shrimps are sweeter.

"I make sure the food is quality. Our sauces our still made in-house. We don't centralize. We have a commissary, but last mile we consolidate all the ingredients and assemble in-store. It's different when sauces are freshly cooked," explained David. It does make a difference. There is a brightness to the pasta. It's very flavorful and really tastes of clams. 

Such attention to detail did not go unnoticed as David Sison was named the Italian Chamber of Commerce's Restaurateur of the Year recently. Italians are known to be quite imperious about their food, so this stamp of approval means Mama Lou's is doing right by its cuisine. "Hindi ko inexpect [I didn't expect it]. Just to be nominated is a win for us," he tells DAILY TRIBUNE. "Mga kasama ko anak ni Margarita Fores (My fellow nominees included the son of Margarita Fores), si Amado; Giulius Lapino of Parmigiano. I look up to these guys. Margarita Fores started it. Of course, there's Amici, Italianni's, but Margarita Fores was also proudly Filipino doing authentic Italian cuisine."

Serving Italy's cuisine is more than just business for David and Crystal. "We love Italy— the culture, the history, the food, and the people. Pwede kami tumira dun (We can live there)," laughs David. They make it a point to go to Italy every year. This is also where they get inspiration. If there's anything David learned while he cooked their meals in Florence recently is that the true essence of Italian food is not slavishly sourcing all ingredients from Italy, but using the freshest ingredients and best quality produce you can find, no matter where you are, even if admittedly Italy is particularly gifted when it comes to terroir.

Milestones

Mama Lou's is 13 years old, and David admits this year has been busiest. "We're opening nine restaurants. We opened six already." All 22 restaurants are still company-owned, but they are exploring franchising, especially for places that are too far for the couple to manage. "It all goes down to the training of your team. You may have all the systems in place, but we're not a fast food," David points out the more complex needs of a fast-casual restaurant. "You need a chef to taste if the food is up to quality. You have to have a team doing audits, doing rounds making sure that the food is the same."

David mentions the pandemic a lot, and it's very evident the direction of the company is now much bolder because of it. Coupled with the death of his father in April of this year, he thinks there's no room for timidity left because life is short.

The expansion includes more Mama Lou Premios, a more upscale gourmet version of Mama Lou's, where they serve fresh pasta, wine and Napoletano-style pizzas. "The ambience is different," he adds. "You can have a three- to five-course menu paired with wines."

There's the Filipino restaurant Famu, a pandemic-born business, that specializes in lechon belly, kansi and sisig. A relaunch of Nonna's, an exclusively Italian pizza and pasta place, is in the offing. They have also started serving up craft beers, an eight-year endeavor that involves a brewer whom he believes is the best in the country "hands down."

Millennial mindset

Being millennial business owners, the Sisons easily adapt to technology and embrace all the ways it helps the business. "Since the pandemic, what we realized as a company is that we survived what was probably the worst situation. We seized all the opportunities. We embraced technology because we're a food company, but I think we're close to tech. We're not a tech company, but we utilize all the technology that is out there," says David.

The company works with a Singaporean company called Lark, which is under Bytedance, the tech corporation behind Tiktok. "As the first client that came from the Philippines, we're early adopters. The challenge was we were using different platforms, was looking for something to consolidate them, so Lark was able to combine them."

David likens a restaurant owner to a pilot. There are key indicators in running the restaurant:  Food costs, inventory, sales targets, reviews etc., but these are just tools, The key is using the data to make informed choices. 

"We're not perfect but what we can do is listen. We always listen. We respond," emphasizes David.  "We go out of our way na habulin yung customer pag may bad review. (We go out of our way to investigate and assuage the customer who gives a bad review)."

You can see this in real-time as Crystal immediately pays attention when she notices a kerfuffle at some table or orders come in too long, and she and David direct a server to deduct the dessert from the bill of customers that may have waited longer than was necessary. "It's better to lose money, than to lose a customer," said David. "Ano ba naman yung i-libre mo yung pagkain (It wouldn't hurt to give the meal for free). You get a customer for life."

"Nothing is more important to us than to see how our guests are perceiving the quality of the food, the service," Crystal said. "Yun naman talaga yung negosyo namin (That is the heart of our business)."

The success of Mama Lou's can be likened to balancing the flavors in a dish and adjusting recipes. Respect tradition and heritage, embrace technology and other innovations along the way, and always play the long game.